22 May, 2024
What can Art do?_Ágora de Cá | Potentialize, open up, revolutionize?
On May 22, 2024, at 6:30 p.m., the third session of the Ágora de Cá cycle, from the series “What can Art do?” took place at zet gallery, with the sub-theme “Potentialize, open up, revolutionize?” and a debate on artistic education in Portugal and the revolution that came before and after April 1974. The session, moderated by journalist Isabel Lucas, featured lyrical singer Elisabete Matos; Helena Lima, head of the Orquestra Geração; visual artist João Tabarra, who is the protagonist of the exhibition “Teimosamente persisto em adorar a liberdade livre” [I stubbornly persist in adoring free freedom], that was on display at zet gallery; and Suzana Leite, regional coordinator of Portugal’s National Arts Plan.
The project is organized by zet gallery in partnership with Passeio, with the support of dstgroup and the Centre for Communication and Society Studies (CECS) at the University of Minho.
SYNOPSIS
Artistic education in Portugal, the revolution that came before and after…
Back in the 1960s, Braga saw the creation of the Braga Regional Music Conservatory by its founder, pedagogue Maria Adelina Caravana, which would later be transformed into the Escola Artística – Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian da Braga in 1971. At the time, it was a pilot project, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, aimed at democratizing and decentralizing artistic education in the country.
The Orquestra Geração is an innovative project which, having started in Portugal in the 2007/2008 school year, anchors its action in social development through music and aims to facilitate access to orchestral practice for children and young people. The Venezuelan model of public music education, known as El Sistema, is said to have inspired this project.
From places on the edge, where it would perhaps be unlikely to observe the flourishing of unique teaching and artistic performance practices, recognized for their excellence, as well as for their reach, in terms of individual development, but above all cultural and social, on a national and even international scale, the revolution, after all, began before April 25 and the dream continues to grow…
Biographical notes
Elisabete Matos
A lyrical singer whose international career was initially promoted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which is the most important institution in the democratization/decentralization of musical and artistic education in Portugal since the 1960s and 1970s.
Elisabete Matos was born in Caldas das Taipas. She graduated in singing and violin from the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory of Music in Braga. On a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation, she continued her studies at the Escola Superior de Canto in Madrid, where she graduated with honors.
She celebrated 35 years of career, having performed at the most important theaters in the world, such as the Metropolitan in New York, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Staatsooper in Vienna and many others…. She has sung alongside the most emblematic figures in operatic singing, such as Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Eva Marton, Leo Nucci, Renato Bruson, Ruggero Raimondi and has been conducted by great conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Bruno Bartoletti, Daniel Barenboin, Daniel Oren, Valery Gergiev, James Conlon, among many others. She has performed the heroines of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner and is known for having performed a vast repertoire, from Bach to modern-day music, in the best concert halls.
He recorded Suppé’s Requiem for Virgin Classics with Michel Corboz and the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra, R. Chapí’s Margarita la Tornera for RTVE, Massenet’s Le Cid with Plácido Domingo, with the Washington Opera, Breton’s La Dolores for Decca, always with Domingo, a recording for which they received a Grammy Award, The Three-Cornered Hat with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Baremboin. She recorded Les Troyens with La Fura dels Baus and Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungs with the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
She is a Visiting Professor at the ESART of the Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute. She was the first woman to become Artistic Director of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. She is a member of the General Council of the University of Minho.
Elisabete Matos was decorated Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr. Jorge Sampaio; she was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit of the City of Guimarães by the Mayor, Dr. António Magalhães, and was decorated Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the President of the Republic, Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
She received the medal of Favorite Daughter of the Town of Caldas das Taipas, awarded by the Parish Council, the medal of the Rotary Club of Caldas das Taipas and the medals of Honor of the Literary Guild and the Eça de Queirós Society.
She has won several prizes in national and international competitions, such as the Luísa Todi Competition or the Belvedere in Vienna, among others. She was awarded the Lola Rodriguez de Aragón Prize, the Lyons Prize for Italian Lyric, the 2012 Fémina Prize and the 2012 Voice of the Year Award.
She was awarded the “Maria Isabel Barreno” Women Creators of Culture award and the Cultural Merit Medal by the Secretary of State for Culture.
Helena Lima
She is currently in charge of Orquestra Geração, which teaches and practices music in underprivileged communities.
Orquestra Geração is a project for social inclusion through orchestral music, whose mission is to promote the full development of children and young people, contributing to their personal, social and academic development. Created in 2007 in a joint partnership between the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional (EAMCN), Amadora City Council and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the project works predominantly in disadvantaged areas with fewer opportunities, striving for access to culture and music teaching for all as an essential asset for building a fairer and more dignified society.
João Tabarra
Artist protagonist of the exhibition “Teimosamente persisto em adorar a liberdade livre.” [“I stubbornly persist in adoring free freedom.”] at zet gallery until July 6, 2024.
His career began with a stint at Ar.Co (1986-1989), where he studied photography. He experimented with photojournalism, but quickly realized that his creativity and critical sense needed an expanded field outside the commercial and conventional communication spaces. His artistic praxis fundamentally explores photography, video and text (which functions as a form of thought and construction of the narrative that the images translate). Cinema is a kind of major reference point, above all for the analepses of short excerpts that are associated with memories and/or thoughts that are detached from reality, but based on a contemplative life. João Tabarra seeks the instant, with the development of images and moving images that take a position, that refuse neutrality.
Suzana Leite
Regional coordinator of Portugal’s National Arts Plan.
Born in Braga, Suzana Leite is a Visual Education teacher at Agrupamento de Escolas Sá de Miranda. She is also a trainer for the DGE’s (Directorate-General for Education) Aesthetic and Artistic Education Program and the author of articles on Artistic Education and Illustration. She produces school textbooks for Porto Editora and has also worked on children’s illustration projects. She is responsible for organizing ceramics and illustration workshops for adults and children.
Isabel Lucas
Moderator of this conversation.
Lecturer at the Lisbon School of Social Communication.
Journalist and literary critic, she writes regularly for the Público newspaper and collaborates with various publications, mainly in the areas of culture and travel. Over the last few years, she has lived between Lisbon and New York. She is the author of the books “Conversas com Vicente Jorge Silva” [Conversations with Vicente Jorge Silva] and “Viagem ao sonho americano” [Trip to the American Dream], a literary journey to the United States of America.